Why do we need slugs?
The nemesis of a keen gardener is a very important link in the food chain, birds love to eat them. Thrush, which can be seen and heard, in Riverside, adore snails and hedgehogs love eating slugs. Earth worms are very important for your soil formation also rely on slugs for food.
Slugs also eat and breakdown decomposing vegetation in your garden, another essential job to keep your garden glorious.
​
We understand that most people don’t want their garden ravaged by slugs and snails but many methods of getting rid of them can harm other wildlife too – slug pellets can kill hedgehogs too, pesticides with ‘metaldehyde’ is known to enter waterways and into our drinking water which can spread through the food chain and harm other wildlife too.
​
If you would consider making your garden slug friendly, or dedicate an area as a safe haven here are some suggestions to help keep your plants protected but keep an essential food source for the birds of Riverside.
Not all methods will work for all slugs, especially the determined ones, but these methods have all been recorded as having some effect so we hope this will help keep your garden beautiful and support biodiversity too.